Hello everyone and welcome back to the Waterstones vlog, my name is Lee and
today I have prepared a book review for you. Now this week has been a
particularly spooky week with Halloween just behind us, Stranger Things is back
on the TV, the clocks have gone back so we are getting into the time, this run up
to Christmas where things are a little bit weird and for those of you who like
this time of year where things are a little bit weird and a little bit
wonderful I have a new perfect book for you. The book I am reviewing today is
It Devours by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Now for those of you familiar
with those names they are the creators of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast and
they wrote the first Welcome to Night Vale novel and this one, It Devours, is
the second in the series. Though the two books aren't linked they're both set in
the weird and wonderful town of Night Vale and for those of you who aren't
familiar with Welcome to Night Vale it is a science fiction podcast which
is set in the weird and wonderful town of Night Vale and I highly recommend you
go and check it out if you haven't already listened to it. But we're not
here to talk about the podcast today we're here to talk about the novel and
oh my god this is a great novel. So let me tell you a little about the book. For
those living in Night Vale they are very aware that a lot of strange things
happen within their town none more so than Nilanjana who is a scientist.
While Nilanjana is working away at her studies Carlos the scientist sets her
a mission. The house of Larry Leroy has disappeared into the void and Carlos
wants Nilanjana to find out why, but the mission is dangerous because the
City Council and former mayor have warned Carlos to stop his experiments. But ever
in the pursuit of science Carlos and Nilanjana can't help themselves
and go off to find out what is happening and then slowly all around night Vale
places to start to disappear into the void leaving behind a gaping hole where
they used to be. I'm not gonna go too in depth with this for you because if you
love Night Vale as much as I do I really really want you to read it because it is
a most excellent book. If you are familiar with Welcome to Night Vale you
will already know a lot of cast members inside of this including Cecil, Carlos, Dana,
Pamela Winchell, Jon Peters you know the farmer and Steve Carlsberg but the main
plot follows Nilanjana and it's so nice to get a new character to follow and the
book makes a lot of references to the podcast as well with things that have
happened in the town previously so if you are familiar with
Welcome to Night Vale this book is absolutely perfect for you. It's also
great for those of you not familiar with Welcome to Night Vale because it is a
great starting place to start if you're going to go and listen to the podcast
because you'll already be familiar with some of the characters within the story.
Now Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor are both wonderful writers, the book is
phenomenally written, the way it explains things is just wonderful and as I was
reading the book I was actually reading it in the voice of Cecil Baldwin
who is the voice of Welcome to Night Vale because I think that's the way it's
written, that's the way it's set and it just flows so well and the story as a
whole is really well done it has lots of twists and turns, things that you just
weren't expecting, which I definitely wasn't, and it takes you on this journey
of trying to find out why some of the strange things that happen in Night Vale
happen. Do we always get the answers that we want? No. But do we get the answers
that we need? Yes! Again a lot of the characters in the book have come from
the podcast so they're already very well established but the new characters that
it brings in, it does a great job of introducing them well, it gives you great
detail of who they are, their beliefs, what they like to do in their spare time
if they are scientists or not and it is really really wonderful to get a hold of
these new characters. The book is really funny as well, again harking back to the
podcast some of the things that it just brings up casually into the book it's
just brilliant and the way the whole book is set out is just perfect. So if
you are a fan of science fiction or you like the weird and wonderful or
you're just looking for something new I highly recommend It Devours
by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor to add to your collection because it is just great. I'm
so happy that this book didn't disappoint it is wonderful and brilliant
and yeah I can't rate it highly enough. So that's it for this video thank you
for watching I hope you've enjoyed it but before I go I'm gonna leave you with
a quick proverb from the town of Night Vale...
Today's proverb: Look to the sky...
you won't find answers there, but you will certainly see what everybody is screaming about.